Did We Mention There'd Be Monkeys?: FAT Part Three

The next day of the FAT was going to be spent in and around the town of Dras. The mountains around this town are close to the Pakistani border and were the location of fighting between India and Pakistan in 1999. We loaded up the bus early in the morning and set out for Dras. The sign on the road out of Kargil said Dras was 56 km away. In the US, 56 kms can be covered in under an hour. In India, 56 kms usually means two to three hours. The road between Kargil and Dras was relatively good for being in the middle of nowhere, but there were still large bumps in the road which tended to be unannounced and unwelcome. The bus we were loaded into had apparently been devoid of shock absorbers for many years, so each bump caused those of us sitting in the back to be launched 6-8 inches into the air. I'm not sure if there's bus service to Hell, but if so I'm pretty sure this bus was on loan from Satan's municipal transit company. After three or four of these bumps, I felt it was wiser to semi-stand with my back against the seat rather than risk a spinal compression fracture. To make things even better, it turned out our first stop wasn't going to be at Dras, but rather we were going to the tiny outpost of Gumri which was another hour and a half past Dras. Four and a half hours and innumerable potholes later, we arrived at Gumri where we were treated to a five-minute briefing and the usual break for tea and samosas. After that excruciating bus ride, we were in disbelief that we had come all that way for a total of twenty minutes of activity. I was near my breaking point. Sensing the possible on-coming of an international incident, my sponsor student arranged for me to ride back in one of the SUVs accompanying the bus. I didn't argue. On the way back to Kargil we stopped off in Dras, our actual destination. We spent a bit more time there getting a full explanation of the 1999 conflict and I will give the Indian soldier credit for being able to fight at high altitude over very rough terrain. I'm still not entirely sure why these rocks were so important, but they fought bravely for them...